Chapter 13
There was a tension in the air, a heavy silence that followed Matthew‘ s hoarse voice. “Did you throw Cassey‘ s things out?” His words sliced through the room, cold and sharp.
Julia froze, a flicker of fear dancing across her face. She had barely managed to move Mrs, Lawrence out of the house without incident, dodging a bullet just in time. But now, with Matthew’s gaze locked onto her, her pulse quickened, her breath shallow. She could feel the weight of the situation pressing down on her chest.
As soon as she saw him turn to leave, she exhaled in relief, thinking it was finally over. But then came the cold, biting command that stopped her in her tracks. “Go out and look for it too,” he said, his voice steady but filled with menace. “If you miss even a single item, I’ll twist off one of your arms.”
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His words were like a hammer striking her heart and in that instant, Julia’s world plunged into darkness. Fear clung to her every step, her body frozen, paralyzed by the impending threat.
Meanwhile, Matthew was fighting a different battle of his own. The PR disaster at the engagement banquet had left Lawrence’s group scrambling to manage the crisis and he’d spent the entire night working tirelessly, trying to put out the flames. He was exhausted, but just as he thought he could rest, a sudden sound jolted him upright.
The ringing of Cassandra’s phone, placed beside him on the desk, startled him. His heart raced in excitement. It must be Cassey! he thought desperately. She‘ s awake! The police made a mistake…
But as he grabbed the phone, ready to answer, his excitement quickly turned to dread. The screen flashed brightly and his heart sank. It wasn‘ t Cassandra calling
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him back, as he’d hoped. Instead, it was an alarm, set by Cassandra herself–a reminder to take her medicine at 2 a.m.
The alarm’s message hit him like a punch to the gut: “The significance of insisting on taking medication is to stand side by side with Matthew Lawrence, to be with each other until we grow old together.
Matthew’s world came to an abrupt halt. His chest tightened as he froze, staring at the screen. A cold shiver ran down his spine and for a long moment, he couldn’t move. His fingers trembled as he turned off the alarm, his mind racing with thoughts he couldn’t control.
Before he could collect himself, another alarm rang. This time, the message was even more painful: “Matthew is my today and all my tomorrows. Stick to your medicine, it will get better.”
His heart clenched in agony. The words pierced through him like a blade. He felt a sudden, overwhelming urge to know more,
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to understand her, to uncover every hidden corner of her life that he had ignored.
Without thinking, he unlocked the phone and began typing in various passwords. each one tied to significant dates in their lives. First, he tried her birthday. Then, his own. Both failed. But when he typed in the anniversary of the day they’d gotten
together, the screen unlocked with a soft click.
Matthew felt a rush of unease as he scanned the phone. The screen was flooded with alarms–dozens of them. Each one was a small, heartbreaking confession from Cassandra, messages hidden behind the veil of her medication schedule. The alarm clocks were all set for the dead of night and their titles were intimate, personal, filled with love and pain.
“Take your medicine! I’ll definitely get better. I can’t let down my favorite Matthew.”
“After taking the medicine, Matthew will
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come to me, right? Right?”
“The medicine is bitter, but thinking of seeing Matthew at dawn makes it less so.”
The realization hit him like a wave. All this time, Cassandra had been suffering in silence, enduring her pain alone. She had been taking medication just to sleep, to survive. She had tried to shield him from her struggles, keeping him in the dark so he wouldn’t worry.
And he–he had been blind to it all.
He remembered the night she suddenly insisted on sleeping in a separate room. Back then, he had thought it was just a whim, a minor change. But now,
everything became painfully clear. Cassandra had been fighting a silent battle with her health and he had never noticed. She had been enduring it alone, unwilling to burden him.
His thoughts turned to Julia. He had been so consumed by anger and jealousy,
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lashing out at the wrong people, all because he had failed to see what was right in front of him. His heart acted as he read through the notes Cassandra had written pages upon pages of small details about his habits, his preferences. She had remembered everything, each one a testament to her love for hi
“Coffee should be iced Americano, not
below 15°C. not more than 300ml. No regular milk. Don’t forget to scald the cup before adding the coffee.”
“Steak should be eight–minute rare…
He couldn’t breathe. The pain in his chest was unbearable as he stared at the screen. His vision blurred and for the first time in a long while, tears threatened to spill from his eyes. The weight of his neglect, the weight of everything he had failed to see crushed him.
He had been so caught up in the chaos around him, so focused on the wrong things, that he had missed the one thing
